pakistan was in a serious bind. they were huge supporters of the taliban but they also needed our aid and assistance. let's see, side with the
heroin producing band of criminals or side with the most powerful nation on the planet and not only avoid being attacked but get some cash too.

Originally posted by marg6043
Perhaps that's why Bush acts like it owns Pakistan, he is ordering troops to get into that country without even asking Musharraf.

Well lets see, didn't Musharraf just negotiated a treaty where that terrorists in Pakistan would be left alone as long as they don't do anything in
that country. So if Osama Bin Laden was found, Pakistan won't do anything. Its a wonder why we pushed Pakistan to cooperate in the first place.

The repercussions here in the UK don't bear thinking about should the US even attempt such a thing. As one of the prime allies in the 'War on
Islam' and with a sizeable million-odd Pakistani population, we would face the prospect of a war of cultures on our own doorstep

Originally posted by timski
The repercussions here in the UK don't bear thinking about should the US even attempt such a thing. As one of the prime allies in the 'War on
Islam' and with a sizeable million-odd Pakistani population, we would face the prospect of a war of cultures on our own doorstep

That is true timski...

People call the WOT a US war, but I truly wonder if the UK is just as involved and not JUST a sidekick. So many protray the UK as a lapdog, but I
wonder if they are involved in planning it just as much as the US is.

Originally posted by Crakeur
let's see, side with the heroin producing band of criminals

- Except this part is a lie and totally untrue.

I realise it goes against the current propaganda but the truth is that the Taliban had almost completely stamped out the Afghan heroin trade.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (February 15, 2001 8:19 p.m. EST
U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan -- once the world's largest
producer -- since banning poppy cultivation last summer.

A 12-member team from the U.N. Drug Control Program spent two weeks searching most of the nation's largest opium-producing areas and found so few
poppies that they do not expect any opium to come out of Afghanistan this year.

"We are not just guessing. We have seen the proof in the fields," said Bernard Frahi, regional director for the U.N. program in Afghanistan and
Pakistan. He laid out photographs of vast tracts of land cultivated with wheat alongside pictures of the same fields taken a year earlier -- a sea of
blood-red poppies.

That's not to say they were a bunch of nice guys or nothing but it is the truth.

Since their departure heroin production has grown massively.

Afghanistan’s opium harvest this year has reached the highest levels ever recorded, showing an increase of almost 50 percent from last year, the
executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said Saturday in Kabul.

Originally posted by sminkeypinkey
I realise it goes against the current propaganda but the truth is that the Taliban had almost completely stamped out the Afghan heroin trade.

That's not to say they were a bunch of nice guys or nothing but it is the truth.

That was then and this is now:

Submitted by Bob Geiger on September 8, 2006 - 10:45am.
It is known that Afghanistan's massive drug trade, which provides 92 percent of the world's opium, is one of the primary sources of funding
for the Taliban, with that group generating roughly 70 percent of its income through the production and sale of opium. And a report released
by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said that rampant opium production and illicit drug trafficking could cripple the already fragile Afghan
government. www.democrats.com...

Since the Taliban are no longer free to pillage and plunder at will, they must turn back to their roots for money.

I never understood the outrage over the statement "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terrorism". Why would you remain
neutral? Because your country hasn't been attacked yet? Well, it's only a matter of time until you are attacked, believe me. Terrorist bombings and
executions happen every day around the globe. That is, unless you want to be a muslim. Then they won't attack you - they'll just take over your
gov't.

Originally posted by jsobecky
That is, unless you want to be a muslim. Then they won't attack you - they'll just take over your gov't.

And I thought this was a War on Terror not War on Islam.

I guess I missunderstood Mister President Bush.

You read the meaning of the post backwards. It is a WOT, The T's are Islamo-facists. We're not after the religion; we're after the terrorists who
just happen to be practicing terrorism in the name of a religion.

Originally posted by ThePieMaN
I'm wondering what would have prompted the Bush administration to actually threaten a nuke bearing country ? So more of our world diplomacy is
unearthed. This is not good at all.

Pie

You just listed another reason for US to deal with Iran before they reach that stage...

Musharraf is very controversial and quite hated in Pakistan for going along with the war on terror, and allowing Pakistani air bases to be used in the
war in Afghanistan.

I feel that perhaps his statement is a way of him saving face, saying that he had no choice and joining in with the choir of America=Evil to regain
some support.

At the same time I think it is perfectly possible for this story to be true, many terrorists, such as those in 7/7 were trained in Pakistans'
extremist madrassahs, and it is recognised that Taliban training camps are operating in the south of the country, currently almost holding control of
it. Whether this was the case before Irag/Afghanistan is unknown, but Pakistan have always been an 'odd' ally in the War on Terror.

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